Well, I had a nasty surprise today. I went down into my studio, which is located in our finished basement, and the throw rug was wet. Sopping wet. Squishing wet. Wet enough that there was no possible way that my little 6 lb. dog had that big of an accident.

That could only mean one thing. Water.

Sure enough, upon closer inspection, thanks to all the heavy rain in the past week, water had come in (again!) under my yarn wall in my fiber room.

This, for anyone not paying attention, is The Bad of today’s posting. The only thing I fear getting in my studio more than water is *looks around to make sure they are not listening, the nasty things* is moths. Oh, I shudder just to think it!!!! Well, and fire. And mice. And little kids. And icky bugs. Okay, so that are a lot of things I’m afraid of getting down there. But this is the third time since we’ve lived here that water has come in under the walls. Not gushing or anything, more like very large, very inconvenient puddles.

After flipping out for a few minutes, running around frantically looking for towels and wishing with every fiber of my being (no pun intended) that Marcus hadn’t had to go into the office today of all days, I discovered that there wasn’t as much water as last time. The Good is that most of the water was absorbed by the throw rug (which prevented any water from going under my computer desk and chair) and by a large pile of fabric waiting to be washed. Lyssie’s pillow didn’t even get wet this time.

I did have tons of yarn on the floor in front of my yarn wall, but it was all in plastic bags, so it didn’t get wet. Thank goodness for plastic!

So, all in all, I decided that my fiber room really was getting a little out of control - Okay! Fine! A lot out of control and it really wasn’t taking me all that long to clean up since all the shelves are up on 2×4’s so most things were still dry. Mostly just of lot of putting away that I’d been putting off.

And then I discovered one bag. One oversized, paper bag that was filled to the top with novelty yarn. And the yarn was soaked. Completely and utterly soaked. A whole bag. And that, ladies and gentlemen, that was when The Swearing started.

Edit: I ended up only having to rewind seven balls back onto my yarn swift.  But still. Grrrrrrrr!!!!!!!

I am so sorry that I haven’t written in so long. Long story short, I went back to Lakewood, NY, to visit my parents in the beginning of August and ended up staying a month. I wasn’t planning on staying that long, but while I was visiting, I went up with my Mom to the yarn shop where she works (at Chautauqua Institution), and the next thing I knew, I was working there, too! Eileen, the owner, really needed another salesperson and since I had worked for her up at Chautauqua two summers ago, I was a perfect fit.

Marcus was really great about me staying there so long; he understood that this was a great opporturnity for me because I was also able to do a little networking with some people up at Chautauqua and ended up receiving four commissions while I was up there. And we did get to see eachother; on weekends he would either come to Lakewood or I would drive back to Cleveland.

Anyway, that’s why I haven’t written in so long, between being gone and then trying to get back into the swing of things back here in Cleveland, and trying to work on comissions and housework, I simply haven’t had time to blog. I will try to do better, I promise, and not be such a bad blogger!

This weekend, Marcus and I are going back to Lakewood, again, for a wool festival. Mom, of course, is going, too. (Like we could keep her away from all that yummy yarn and spinable fiber. ) It is going to be so much fun! I am planning on buying two Golding spindles, and probably a Bossworth spindle, too.

Plus some silk fiber, of course, and some bamboo and a Bossworth spindle as a gift for my friend Leigh, who is currently in Japan for a semester. She is a vegan, so I am hoping to pick up some soy silk fiber for her to spin, too. Ha, ha, I know: soy for a vegan.

We missed this wool festival last year because Marcus and I were being vendors at an art festival, so I am really excited about going tomorrow. I am not even going to say that I’ll try to be good. When it comes to yarn or spinable fiber (or fabric, or beads, or books, or hand lotion for that matter ), I may have absolutely zero self control, but at least I am honest about it.

“It’s the end of the world, and I have the best seat in the house.”

This is the first line of an amazing new book called Luna, by Garaon Whited. I’ve been reading his Elfwood gallery, for a really long time now, and I absolutely love his work. He is one of my favorite writers, right up there with J. R. R. Tolkein, Mercedes Lackey, Juliet Marillier, Melanie Rawn, and Marion Zimmer Bradley. And Garon Whited’s new book, Luna, is finally out!

I have been waiting a really long time for this. For a while, he was putting up chapters of Luna on Elfwood as he was writing them, kind of like teasers, and they were just amazing! Funny, witty, and full of drama. Science fiction, astronauts, the moon, space stations, and, as you may have guessed, the world blowing up. Does it get any better than that?

I buy a lot of books, mostly science fiction and fantasy, and tend to spend as much money on them as Marcus will let me. Because of this, I usually buy paperbacks since I can get 3 paperbacks for about the price of one hardcover. However, Garon Whited is so amazing that I will be buying his new book in *gasp* hardcover. Yes, I am going to shell out the big bucks because Luna is that wonderful! Click here to read the first chapter of Luna, or click here for another excerpt.

Garon Whited has a another book out, too, called Nightlord. I haven’t read it yet, but since he wrote it, I am sure it is great. Anyway, read the excerpts, and go buy Luna. Amazon.com and barnesandnobles.com both have it, so pick your favorite site and buy the book. Buy one for yourself, for a friend, for a stranger. Buy a backup copy. Just buy it. And read it. You’ll love it.

Hello, world. I am introducing myself to the gods of blogging. (You programmers out there will know what I mean. ) My wonderful husband, (who is, incidentally, a programmer) has finally set up a blog on my website for me.

My name is Meagan Weidner and I am a fiber artist, married, and have a cute little yorkie named Alyssa. Isn’t she adorable?

My husband, Marcus, and I moved to Willowick, OH, (near Cleveland) about a year and a half ago from Jamestown, NY, where I grew up. We bought a house here with a very nice studio space in the finished basement. Such a nice studio, in fact, that I never seem to leave the house.

I just attended a 3-day workshop taught by Janet Edmonds. The workshop was from her book Embroidered Caskets (In England “Caskets” means boxes) I would highly recommend this book to anyone is interested in making boxes. The book’s directions are very clear and easy to understand. In the class, we all started out with the same box pattern, but look how different they turned out:

Mine, of course, is the lime green one. It isn’t quite finished; I still have to attach the bottom and make a fabric bead for the top. This picture is right about life-sized:

I will try to post another picture when I finish it, which should be today.

I had such a fun time in this workshop. I really felt I learned a lot. My box was created using pellon (Timtex), nettings, sheers, metallics, angelina fiber and other fun things. I have used all those materials in the past, but now I feel a lot more comfortable using them. The boxes were created mostly by machine, but all had a great deal of handwork, too. Because the class was only 3 days, and involved a lot of design and detail work, I was forced to make quicker decisions and not spend a lot of time agonizing over the piece. I am definitely wanting to make more boxes now.

Right now, though, I need to busy working on my entries for an art show I am entering next month. Out of the three pieces I want to enter, only 1 is finished, and 1 is still just the top! (Not pinned up or quilted) So I will be signing off now and getting back to work!